Better Weekend

Shotgun Red and Steve Hall

Well, anything would be better than last Sunday's outcome so i am happy to report a pretty calm weekend which included going to the Ice Fishing Show at the National Sportscenter in Blaine on Saturday with my neighbor Lory Brasel, he is really helping to take care of me!  The show was pretty good, I bought 4 things there, the most interesting thing was a Skinny Dipper for my Ice house, and new Crappie ice rod from a real nice guy that was making them himself, a new knife and a LED flashlight, I am a sucker for those things.    The guy selling the Skinney Dipper was Steve Hall, a name from the past for sure.  Steve is the creator of Shotgun Red a well know puppet on the Nashville scene and was a star on TNN, The Nashville Network and appeared on Ralph Emery's show often. It was interesting to see him selling his invention, the Skinny Dipper at the show and we quickly talked about our connection back in the early 1980's when I hunted the Skime Minnesota area with my friends Ron Edberg, Mark Mayerich, Gary Ullom, Mark and Jack Taylor. We hunted public land as well Ron had secured permission to hunt an additional 3000 acres of land adjoining the public land, it was quite interesting.  Steve Hall used to hunt the same land and would stay at a local farm, Marvin Olsen, who like a lot of locals believed he controlled the land next to his as we had a few run in's with him.  Steve ended up buying 1000 acres of our prime hunting area, even though we hunted the south side of his land and he gave us permission the first year, Marvin didn't see it that way and when he burst into out cabin in Skime and threatened to shoot us if he saw us on Steve's land again. we decided it was best to stop hunting that area.  At the show Steve and I talked about the good ol'days, and it was interesting to compare notes.  He has long since sold that land and I often wondered what happened. He continues to sell the Skinny Dipper and a bought a Green Bay Packer colored one but he did have Viking colored ones here is a link to getting them skinny Dipper It looks pretty handy and i have already put it in my ice house, it looks really good and should be a great addition to my ice house. I also bought a custom made ice rod for crappies.  Last year a bought a TURC (Tuned Up Custom Rods) and it broke right away.  This one looks alot better and I got a Black Betty 6061 reel to go with it.

Steve's nice 8 pointer

Sunday was the first Packer Viking game of the season and it comes after Green Bay  had suffered 3 consecutive losses including 1 to Detroit last weekend..uffda.  Well I didn't know if my heart and brain could take another loss but the Pack came out okay with a 30-13 win over the hapless Vikings!During the game my brother Steve texted me this picture of a nice 8 point buck that he shot his last weekend, Saturday was the start of Wisconsin deer hunting season.  I call him yesterday to see if he needed any help but in true Anderson Fashion he said no, he was doing just fine! I told him what he told me, take 3#'s of bacon and grind it with 10#'s of venison however he gave credit where that recipe came from. our dad!  Makes sense now and I am glad he told me There are a lot of deer hunting stories around and I can use them for fillers in the coming weeks seeing that ice fishing could be a little behind.  Way to go Steve!!!  Speaking of ice fishing it's time this weekend to get out my portables and get my equipment ready. Lory and I rigged a couple of nice crappie rods, the one I bought at the show, and this year I went with 2# test line, I really like how you can see the line react to a light bit, it takes some gettintg used to, like my buddy Kevin Aiona, he really has that knack.  Since last Sunday I have been taking it easy and no getting too much done around the house. That is going to have to change soon as my schedule get's pretty hectic the next few weeks, with Thanksgiving coming up, doctors appointment on the 1st,  a trip to Orlando on the 2nd, Ice fishing show on the 5th, Christmas party on the 6th with the Taylors....no rest for the wicked that's for sure!
oh well, I did get some what they call 303 aerospace vinyl protectant for my Ranger Boat cover, they are expensive and it really pays to put it onthe boat when I travel, I get at least 2mpg better so I found something that would help to perserve it better.

Thanksgiving is this week and I wish everyone of my followers a wonderful thansgiving, I personally have a lot to be thankful, my friends who take care of me, my family, my wife, my health (it's still pretty good!) qg=hich wasn't much affected by my stroke from last week,  my fishing partners Keith, Jeff, Bruce, Mark, Pete, and Bill. Please take some time to look around and appreciate that which you should be thankful for!!! Ok, enough, let hope next week we will be thankful for some cold weather and some good old fashion ice making we need about 3 inches for me to be comfortable!  I need to try out that new rod!